The Mystery in the Attic
by Greenayy
Summary: When Lilli's brother Vash is arrested for murder, she is sent to live with an estranged uncle, Roderich Edelstein. There she finds a locked door to a mysterious attic. Why is Natalya so determined to enter the attic? Why is the butler so scary?
1. Arrival

**The Mystery in the Attic Chapter One:**

 **Arrival**

"Hallo, und guten abend. My name is Lilli Zwingli, and you must be-"Lilli stopped herself. The person who opened the door for her was most certainly not Lord Roderich Edelstein, esquire. Nor was it Elisabeth Héderváry, his companion. In fact, the door opener appeared to be some sort of paranormal being invisible to the naked eye, or possibly not there at all.

Behind the door lay a very expensive-looking carpet with strange symbols etched around the edges, leading to a tall staircase. Illuminating the whole sight were stained-glass windows depicting sweeping landscapes, akin to what Lilli had seen on the train to the manor. Chinese vases lined the great hall in shades of blue, getting darker as they receded from her vision. The most breathtaking sight, however, was the massive chandelier hung from the rafters. Lilli assumed it was just as expensive as the lavish carpet and made of real diamonds.

A sharp cough brought Lilli back to earth. It was a strange girl, appearing not much older than herself, with platinum blonde hair and a scowl. She was wearing a maid's outfit. "Are you, uh, Elisabeth?" Lilli asked. This new girl was unnerving, to say the least, and downright terrifying if one were to be completely honest. Lilli was going to join her brother in asylum if she was to be her new 'mother'.

"I am Natalya. You are Lilli. I have been assigned to you." Natalya's voice was deep and empty, and the massive ceilings rang with her voice for a spell after she finished speaking.

"Nat! Has the carriage pulled up yet? I want to be the first!" A much warmer voice called from up the stairs. The floorboards around the landing creaked ever so slightly, causing a cacophony of shrieking to echo through the foyer. Natalya winced, and Lilli breathed a sigh of relief. So Natalya-Nat- was human, too.

"O-oh! Nat, you were- uhh- were you at least polite- Hello, Lilli, it's great to finally meet you- I've been so excited- was the journey nice, how is your brother- you know I've met you once before but you probably don't remember you were just, small- here, let me take that- Nat will you- alright, now come on, we've been waiting for you for dinner." Lilli's head spun. This Ersebet wasn't much better. Natalya had disappeared, and Ersebet took this opportunity to glide one hand around Lilli and guide her to the left, revealing a large and dimly lit hallway. A candelabra atop a long table flickered at the end, and a teen wearing a cravat and a powder blue waistcoat leaned against the doorway. He looked about the same age as Natalya, and had blond hair as well, flopping overtop of his eye. He seemed very young to be Roderich.

"This is Noah Andersen, he's staying with us for the time being. Roderich is teaching him." Lilli did not bother asking what. As they neared him, he disappeared back into the room.

Inside, Noah, Roderich, a brunette about Lilli's age and a caramel-skinned girl between her and Nat's age were already seated. Ersebet directed her to a seat beside the caramel-skinned girl and took a seat at the end of the table, across from Roderich.

"Are you Lilli? I have heard SO MUCH about you! Elisa has been so excited! My name is Michelle, by the way. I'm one of Mr. Roddy's students. That's Noah, and she"- Michelle pointed to the brunette-"is Lucille. So, you're supposed to be like their kid?"

"Michelle, manners." Roderich smiled at Lilli. "We shall be taking care of Lilli for a while. You have met Natalya and Berwald, yes?"

"Not Berwald yet. I thought it best to get her accustomed to us before we introduced someone so intimidating." Elisabeth replied.

"Berwald's the butler. He's super tall and scary. He almost never smiles." Michelle whispered.

"Now, Lilli, tell us about yourself." Roderich said coolly.

"What happened to your brother?"

"Why's he in the hospital?"

"He's not in the hospital, he's in the asylum!"

"Why's he in the asylum?"

"Are you crazy too?"

Lilli bit the inside of her cheek. Thankfully, Roderich took control.

"Is this how we treat others? Have some tact! Lilli may not want to talk about it. Don't push her." Michelle looked at her feet. Lilli noticed she wasn't wearing shoes. Neither was Lucille, who had exuded an air of nobility, or Noah, whose pressed pinstripe suit clashed greatly with his bare toes. Elisabeth's stockings brushed the floor. Even Roderich was without footwear. Lilli immediately felt odd.

The rest of dinner passed without incident. Nat came around at the end to take the plates away. Noah immediately took off towards the left hallway, disappearing into a room near the beginning. Lucille hung around for a moment more to whisper something to Elisabeth before going up the stairs in the foyer. Michelle followed suit, leaving Lilli alone with her "parents".

"Lilli, if you have any questions, feel free to ask right now while we're alone." Elisabeth grasped Lilli's arm loosely.

"Why can't I stay with Vash?"

Elisabeth's smile drooped. Her hand fell back to her side, and she looked pointedly at Roderich. Roderich cleared his throat.

"The authorities have determined Vash to be unfit to take care of you."

"But why? What did he do? He was absolutely fine for eleven years- why?"

"They worry that, that your brother, would harm you as easily as he did that poor trespasser."

"No. He never would. He would never. He always- took good care of me."

Roderich and Elisabeth shifted uncomfortably. Roderich excused himself, dabbing at his brow with his cravat. Elisabeth was frowning, lines on her forehead.

"Natalya? Would you take Lilli to her room? Please, give her a tour while you're at it." Elisabeth disappeared after her fiancé. Natalya shifted her icy stare to Lilli.

"Follow." Nat took off at a brisk pace back towards the foyer, gesturing to each door.

"Bathroom. Drawing room. Servant's quarters. Paint and sculpture room. Main hall." Lilli, meanwhile, focused on the location of each squeaky floorboard.

"Violin room, piano room, general string room, percussion room, wind-instruments, brass instruments, concert hall." Nat pivoted and almost ran right into Lilli.

"Upstairs in this building is all your bedrooms." Natalya receded into the shadows. Lilli ran up and down the stairs a few times before she was certain she could run down skipping the creaky stairs in her sleep.

It was only when she arrived at the first door that she realized she didn't know which room was hers.

One half of the upstairs was behind a locked door to the right, a door directly above the stairs had a huge padlock and a 'keep out' posted on it. On her left was six doors. One was painted sky blue. Another was pale pink. Next was a deep indigo coloured door, and a deep red. The end of the hallway had one white and one black door.

Time for some detective work. She had read all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, after all.

The pale pink was similar to the frilly dress Lucille was wearing, and Lilli didn't want a door of that color either way. The sky blue across from it was either Michelle's or Noah's. The indigo, red, black, and white were all ambiguous, and Lilli didn't want to walk in on anyone.

Lilli needed her brother. "Vash?" she yelled. Vash never answered. He was in another country. Elisabeth and Roderich did.

"Lilli? What? Is he here?"

"U-um."

"Do you need something?"

"Which, which room-"

"Yours is white. We didn't know which color to paint it." Elisabeth was distant, and seemed to be looking at something behind Lilli's head. Just as quickly as the door had opened, Elisabeth vanished back inside.

Every single floorboard creaked on her way to the room.

Thanks for reading! In case you don't know-

Lilli- Liechtenstein

Michelle- Seychelles

Lucille- Monaco

Noah- Luxembourg

Natalya- Belarus

Berwald- Sweden

Roderich- Austria

Elisabeth- Hungary


	2. The Attic

**Hi everybody,**

 **the REAL chapter 2.**

 **thanks for reading, Greenayy**

The room itself was on the large side and contained only a bed, desk, and closet. Her bag lay open on the floor, its contents thrown everywhere; one nightdress was even hanging from the chandelier on the ceiling. Lilli was going to be a professional sleuth at this rate- who would have looked through her bag? She was a teenage orphan who hadn't held more than ten dollars her whole life. Her notebook (which contained mostly cursive practice and sums) was bent under the side table. All the used pages had been ripped out, and likely a few blanks as well.

Out of all the suspects, Natalya was definitely the most suspicious, followed by Berwald the Scary Butler. Maybe she thought Lilli had money- the kids at the table looked wealthy.

Lilli snuck out of the room. She could make it to the edge of the pink door before the floor started creaking. If she took off her shoes (Yuck! Who does that?) she could sneak an inch further, far enough to stretch to the landing. Just then, Natalya slammed the door from the left hall and stalked towards the stairs. Lilli hid behind a table with a large vase of roses. Wasn't the servant's quarters downstairs? Natalya reached into the pocket of her apron and pulled out a large, tarnished key and slid it into the lock on the door directly over top of the landing. Natalya turned the key carefully. With the groaning of likely just as tarnished gears, the padlock popped open. Natalya sighed and swung the door open. Her head slowly raised to look up at the roof- was there stairs? Lilli hadn't seen any stairs anywhere else, and the house seemed at least four floors tall from the outside.

"Sh*t," Natalya noted quietly. She slid the door closed and shut the lock with a lot more care than with which she had opened it.

Lilli crept out from behind her plant. The floorboards squeaked. Nat's head snapped sharply to the left.

"What are you doing out of bed." Natalya asked. "You are supposed to be asleep, da?"

"Da-yes-I mean- what are you doing? You're supposed to be asleep on a different floor."

"Go. To. Bed." Natalya's voice may have been cool and even, but the glimmer in her eyes gave Lilli the shivers. _Nat will probably kill you if you don't go. Go. You can't take her._ Lilli backed away, fumbling for the doorknob. Nat stared the whole way.

 _Screw who messed up my stuff. It was definitely Nat. What's past that door? What does she want with it?_ Lilli opened to a new page in her notebook.

Early the next day, when only the first ray of sunlight had pierced the sky, Lilli went back to the hall. She had slept about an hour. To heck with hygiene, she didn't bother putting her shoes on. She stretched across to the landing, danced down the stairs, and tiptoed to the right hallway- to the servant's quarters, specifically. If Natalya could get away with sneaking around where she wasn't supposed to go, so could she. And besides, if she was caught, she could simply pretend she was sleepwalking.

The door to the servants' quarters ended up leading to a room divided into three, a middle section with a painting at the end in front of Lilli. Deep, soft snores could be heard to her left, and quiet shuffling to her right. Lilli's knees gave out a bit. If her hunch was correct, Natalya was moving around. But Lilli was in Nat's territory, so if Nat was awake she was likely to be ready to defend should Lilli walk in. If it was Nat in the left, Lilli stood a good chance of disarming Nat and questioning her, but the snores sounded greatly to be Berwald the Scary Butler's. Lilli wanted to delay meeting him as long as possible.

The curtain to the right shifted, and Lilli chose the third option- run upstairs to the relative safety of her bedroom.

After a small period of time, shuffling feet arrived at Lilli's door. Elisabeth knocked.

"Lilli? Are you awake?" Elisabeth called.

"Y-yes." Lilli had a new plan, outlined in her notebook as well as a somewhat complete list of questions to interrogate Natalya with.

When Lilli came down for breakfast, she discovered that everyone had come down in their nightclothes, something Lilli had not done in years. Elisabeth looked up from the conversation as soon as she noticed Lilli standing at the doors of the dining room.

"Good morning! I was hoping you would wake up soon- I was going to have Lucy and Noah and Michelle show you around today, you've only seen the one building."

"I was just hoping to have a day to relax today." If the others hung around after breakfast, Lilli would have no chance to question Natalya without raising alarm bells.

Elisabeth's brows furrowed. She wasn't buying it.

"And, I still am not quite familiar with this, this building." Elisabeth didn't take her gaze off Lilli, but dropped the matter. Lilli ate slowly, she needed to be the last person in the room. After much more time than Lilli's plan allotted, the rest of the residents of Edelstein Manor finally vacated the dining room. Natalya tread smoothly into the room, effortlessly avoiding Lilli's gaze. Lilli's grip on her knife tightened. She wiggled her chair backwards, angling it towards the corner of the table, and lunged at Nat, brandishing the kitchen knife high. Natalya slammed into the wall behind her hard. Lilli had assumed Natalya to be tall and undefeatable, but up close she saw that Natalya really a tad shorter than herself, and her bones jutted through the thick navy dress. Lilli shifted her stance a bit, switching the hand holding the knife to Nat's neck. Though Nat started to kick, the disadvantage from her shock was too large to recover from and her legs swept past Lilli's.

Eventually Nat stopped struggling. "What are you wanting? I am need to do job."

"I want answers. Why did you mess with my luggage? What's behind that door? Where did you get that key?"

"I not to tell."

"Why not? Did Mr. Edelstein tell you not to?"

"None of yours business. I not tell."

Lilli brought the knife closer to Natalya's pale neck.

"You are little girl. You not hurt me." The silver tip of the polished blade brushed against Nat's neck. "Bah. You are too weak and soft." A drop of crimson slipped from the tiny wound. Natalya's face remained unchanged. "Not any further." One corner of her lips curled up.

Lilli saw red. She wasn't a child- she was taller than this strange girl was, even- so why wouldn't she be able to slice her throat? The knife's edge pushed further into Nat's neck. Rivulets of crimson rolled down, staining the white blouse beneath her smock. Nat gasped. "No more, I tell, I tell, I tell!"

Lilli reached back into her pocket and pulled out bandages. She wrapped them around Nat's greyed neck while Nat caught her breath.

"I suppose I should tell you about me first. I am Natalya Arlovskaya, known to most as Nat. I have an older brother and an older sister. My sister left when I was a child, to be free of us and find her own life. My brother took care of me until I was fourteen, when we were attacked by raiders from the north. He was never the same after that, so I left.

"I found work as a maid in Edelstein Manor. No rooms have ever been locked, except for the attic door. I received strict instructions to never go upstairs, so of course that was my prime destination-"Lilli giggled, and Natalya glared-"but I had no key.

"Until about two months ago, when Edelstein was sick in bed. He was delirious, and when I came with broth, he thought I was Elisabeth and told me where the key was in case of his death. I found it right where he said it was, and have carried it with me since waiting for an opportunity to enter the attic. Last night, when everyone was tired from your arrival, was the perfect time,"

"So what was there?"

"Stairs leading to another door. The lock is much too small to fit this key," Natalya explained. She pulled out a massive rusty key as evidence.

"Huh."

"Are you wanting to go up as well?"

"U-um, I guess, so?"

"We are now friends. Once the attic is open we are no longer friends. Is this a deal?"

Lilli was confused. That wasn't how friends worked- but even a strange friend was better than none. "Deal." How far they had come, fighting to friends in the space of five minutes.

"We must find the top key. I have reason to believe it is in the other building, in the ballroom," Natalya informed Lilli, "so you must find the others. They are in the sitting room. Accept the tour, and I will be pretending to clean. Act like the ballroom is the most beautiful thing you have ever seen, and ask to spend time there after the others leave. We must search."

Lilli scampered off to the sitting room. As Nat had predicted, the others were there discussing something laid upon the table. Five heads snapped up as soon has her foot touched marble.

"Lilli- how nice of you to join us? We were just talking about atmosphere," Elisabeth babbled. "Anyway, ignore me, to what do we owe your company?"

"I-I was wondering if we could take the tour now."

 **I'm sorry the last time I uploaded this it was so messed up...**


	3. Friendship

**Hi World,**

 **Sorry about the problem with last chapter, so have another (short and terrible) chapter for your troubles.**

 **~Greenayy**

"Of course! Come on, let's- does anybody want to stay working? I mean, you could, but it would mean a lot-"Elisabeth was cut off by all four standing up and walking towards the door. Lilli assumed that Elisabeth often got carried away like this.

The other building was gorgeous. Famous paintings, some of which may have been real, lined the marble walls, and paintings of cherubs decorated the ceiling. Elegant crystal chandeliers dangled from the ceiling, scattering sunlight from the enormous stained-glass windows across the hall. Lilli didn't have to pretend to be awed by the carved furniture in the bedrooms splitting from the hallway, or the scent of the fresh roses neatly placed in dozens on the tables in the dining hall. The ballroom itself had a door to the outside on one end, and a spiraling staircase held up by an ivory pillar at the other. Embroidered tapestries hung on the walls, depicting magical and fantastic creatures. The walls themselves were made of marble, while gold sculptures littered the baseboards at the bottom. It was much grander and much, much more expensive than anything Lilli had ever seen before. Vash hesitated to spend money on necessities, after all.

Nat was holding a feather duster and cleaning the shimmering figures along the wall, most of which came up to her waist. There looked to be so many that by the time she dusted the last one off, the first would be dirty again.

"This place- it's so, so pretty! Can I stay here a bit?" Lilli breathed. The room simply held a majestic aura, more than anything. Lilli supposed it was from the decades of nobles who frequented the Edelstein manor.

"I _suppose_ you can," Elisabeth admitted, "but why?"

"It's just so pretty!" Lilli gushed. Natalya raised her head at the noise. Her deep blue eyes met Lilli's across the room and narrowed. Roderich cleared his throat.

"We should be getting back to the lesson, Eli. The kids need to work on their formula pattern scales, after all," he reassured. Elisabeth's gaze didn't waver, but she strode across the room and flung open the huge wooden doors.

"Back to work everybody!" she called, and the students broke out of their bored trance and scurried to the opposite side.

The doors swung shut, leaving Lilli and Natalya alone once more.

"So, what now?" Lilli asked.

"Honestly? I'm not really sure. I assumed you would not be competent to become alone here." Natalya's broken, clipped way of speaking from this morning was gone now, and she stood forcefully in front of Lilli. All the courage Lilli had felt earlier had vanished, and that combined with the sparkling tip of a dagger twirling around Nat's hands made her knees quake. She leaned against one of the glossy statues, one of a cherub holding up a plate that she could (thankfully) sit on.

"Where did you find the last key?" Lilli questioned.

"I found it behind a tapestry. It was one from Greece, depicting the myth of Persephone. I suppose we should look for the same one here, but if we cannot find it, perhaps another myth related to it will do the trick," Natalya toned, "Or we could simply look behind all. It was just tied to the hook the tapestry hung from."

And so, the friends (?) flipped tapestry after tapestry, until they found one depicting an Egyptian god with the head of a dog-like creature. Above the tapestry, in the gap between the hook and where the tapestry actually started, Lilli could see some twine. "Natalya!" she yelled. Nat came faster than her brother.

"What is it?"

"What god is this?" Lilli wondered aloud.

"He's like the Egyptian Hades or something like that."

"Hades? Persephone?" Lilli probed.

"Oh- Oh- OH!" Natalya grabbed the tapestry so harshly a patch near the bottom disintegrated between her fingers. Behind the tapestry, there was indeed a string- one that had been shoddily cut, the frayed ends revealing that the rope had once been longer, perhaps holding-

"The key!"

"It's not there, Nat. Somebody must have already taken it, like, like the butler!"

Nat spun on her toes and grabbed Lilli's shoulders. "I'll talk to him."

"Why?"

"If you talked to him, you'd have a heart attack and die."

"Don't you want that to happen? Less competition for the attic treasure, and my blood wouldn't even be on your hands!"

Natalya released Lilli and covered her face with her hands, taking a moment to breathe. "We are friends. Friends do not let friends die."

 **Hey, would you look at that? Natalya and Lilli are like, actual friends now!**

 **Till later,**

 **~Greenayy**


	4. Reflections

**Hi world (Truly the world! I have readers from US, Canada, UK, Russia, Lithuania, Poland, Mexico, Brazil, France, Philippines, Germany, and Singapore!)**

 **Thanks for reading (and thanks for reviewing if you do, hint hint).**

 **~Greenayy**

That evening, Lilli had just tucked herself into bed, when a soft knock came at her door.

"Lilli? It's me, Nat. I talked to the butler. He wouldn't tell me anything, but keep your eyes open in case." Footsteps receded from the door, and Lilli was left feeling warm inside.

That night, she got the best sleep she'd had since she left Switzerland.

*TIMESKIP*

Lilli woke up to shrieking and loud, raucous laughing. Calls of taunts rang through the wooden door, and stomps raced back and forth through the hallway and stairs. Lilli tried to ignore it and focused on tying her hair back into two thick braids. Lilli gazed at her reflection in the vanity. She couldn't remember the last time she'd cut her hair. Not since her parents had died, she remembered. It was her way of saying that her and her brother were not one and the same. All the visitors who came to her parents' funeral cooed about "Lilli looks so much like her brother!" "Isn't it adorable, they look so much alike?" "The resemblance is uncanny!" Lilli hadn't wanted to look like her brother, so stoic and unfeeling as strangers invaded their mansion and left just as suddenly. The only evidence they were there were the missing heirlooms taken by siblings that were simply 'claiming their inheritance'. Lilli recalled that it had felt as though the family had descended upon their house and taken her parents with them at their departure.

Lilli had always perceived her brother as untouchable, the siblings as different as the sun and moon, but she had loved him all the same. Her mind flicked back to her assault yesterday. Perhaps, just perhaps, she understood her brother better than Lilli had previously thought. Lilli's hands moved without her blessing to the discarded kitchen knife on the bedside table. She let out a breath that she hadn't noticed she'd been holding and raised the knife to her dirty blonde locks. They were so thick that she had to shimmy the knife back and forth to cut her hair. When she was finished, the slightly jagged ends hovered above her shoulders. Her attempt at bangs tickled the tops of her eyebrows, and her fat braids lay desolately beside her, looking as depressed as hair could look. They were heavy when Lilli picked them up, so much so that her arms ached after she dumped them into the waste bin. Feeling refreshed, she threw open the doors to go down to breakfast, not anticipating the three stunned teens (and one young woman) waving pretend battleaxes.

 **o0o**

Her new hairstyle went over better than Lilli had hoped. Elisabeth's look of disbelief passed, and turned into a smile. Michelle had been quick to complement her, asking if she could copy the style on her own pigtails. Lucille had made a sarcastic comment on how Lilli could probably make a new her out of all the discarded hair. Noah had simply smiled and told her that it looked unique and pretty. Lilli could never have thought of what Natalya would do- as soon as Lilli walked into Natalya's view, Nat had rushed over to her, grasping her chin and tilting her head so as to look at it from each angle. She had muttered something among the lines of "must be convenient," and left the room with beet red cheeks.

 **o0o**

Once they were all finished, Michelle dragged Lilli upstairs by her velvet sleeve, practically begging her to play Vikings with the rest of the students. Michelle's large, shiny brown puppy dog eyes left Lilli no choice but to play along. Lilli didn't have much time for games- she remembered that her brother spent much of his time hunting, and she did most of the cleaning and cooking. She hadn't minded- she couldn't long for a lifestyle she'd never had, after all.

"Alright, so, three of us are gonna be Vikings-"Michelle started to explain the game, but was cut off.

"Which kind of Vikings?" Noah interrupted.

"… Norwegian ones." Michelle thought aloud. "Now let me explain! The other two are British villagers that are trying to stop the Vikings from pillaging them. If you're a Viking, you get a pretend axe an' you get a slingshot if you're a villager.

"The top floor is-"Noah cut in once more.

"Isn't the attic the top floor?"

"Noah! I'm trying to explain the game already! Jeez, um, the top floor **we're allowed to go on** , okay, is the village, and you have to keep the Vikings from getting up the stairs."

"How do you win if you're a villager?"

"You don't! There isn't really an end, cuz if the Vikings make it upstairs we just switch sides and play again, maybe remake the teams after a few rounds, you know."

Lilli didn't know.

"Anyhoo, let's get started. Team captains- Lilli and Lucy."

Lucy flounced upstairs, claiming her position as Villager. Lilli froze, but Michelle pushed her towards the vases on the ground floor.

"Lilli can pick first, hey Lucy! 'Cuz it's her first time and all." Michelle started gesturing wildly towards Elisabeth.

"U-um. I guess I'll take Miss Elisabeth."

"Lilli, just call me Eli, please." Eli reassured as she strode confidently to Lilli's side.

"I pick Michelle as my partner." Lucille shrugged. Noah and Michelle bade each other good luck before sprinting to opposite sides of the room.

"Let the game begin!" Michelle roared.

 **Sorry it ended so suddenly, I ran out of time to complete it. These chpters have been getting progressively shorter, have you noticed? I'm sorry about that too. I;m sorry about being sorry about being sorry so much!**

 **Next time, Greenayy**


	5. Vikings and the Holidays

**Hello world,**

 **Guess what! My hiatus is over, and I'm back again to provide you your favourite characters in uninteresting situations, with no plot/adjectives to get in the way of that sweet, sweet, amateurness.**

 **Mmmmhhhhh I wish I was better at writing**

 **~Greenayy**

Lilli found herself nearly swept off her feet as Eli raced past her. Noah raised his 'axe' to protect Lilli from an incoming ball shot by Michelle.

"You've got to get going, Lil! We have to make it upstairs!" Noah tugged on her burgundy-clad arm. Lilli floundered for breath as he yanked her from side to side to dodge the projectiles. Eli had somehow already made it to the top, and was clashing with Michelle as Lucille tried desperately to fend off the other invaders. Lilli didn't want to be on the opposite side of Eli- the look on her face reminded Lilli greatly of the determined expression her brother held so often. Noah released Lilli's arm.

"Run upstairs, you gotta help Eli!"

Lilli was fairly certain Eli could hold her own against an armada of Michelle's but moved to her aid anyway. As she danced around the frequent assault, her surroundings changed, first one element, then the next. The rubbery balls turned leaden and deadly. Her axe sharpened in her hands, the heavy hilt requesting both hands as she struggled to defend herself. The oriental carpet vanished, leaving slippery, wintry terrain in its wake. The stairs softened into a blindingly white hill, rivulets of blood painting frightening pictures of destruction. Noah's blue pinstripes morphed into blue-tinted furs, his cardboard weapon slicing through cannonballs as though they were butter. Eli's scarred form moved like a blur ahead, jogging Lilli out of her thoughts. All the pent-up stress of a nonexistent childhood bubbled up to the surface, releasing itself in a mass delusion, so realistic that the tall, mysterious ally clad in deep black didn't register as a new entity until Lucille and Michelle had surrendered. Lilli whirled around to congratulate Noah, but found herself face to face with a man who she could only describe as Berwald-the-Scary-Butler.

 **oOo**

Lilli woke up thinking that the start of her day had been an illusion. She felt dual braids pressing against her back, radiating heat, her head on a goose-down pillow, since when were braids warm-

The 'braids' were two slim arms, trying desperately not to give out, and the pillow was Michelle's chest.

"Whudda, whudda, mnyeh, whudda, bru-"Lilli murmured. Her arms felt like iron bars attached to her torso, her legs numb as though they had been soaked in ice water. Michelle's arms drooped, and Lilli swung towards the floor. Eli easily picked her up, tossing her effortlessly over her broad shoulder. Eli marched towards a decorative horsehair couch, propping Lilli into a sitting position.

"Lil, are you alright? Do you need tea? Lucy, go get some tea- go get Nat to make some tea, oh, never mind, get hot cocoa, get some for everyone, Berwald, hello, is your family coming for the holiday? Ah, wait, yes, um, ah, heh, a, someone go get Roderich!"

Before Lilli could blink a scalding drink had been forced into her hands and a cashmere blanket wrapped around her shoulders. The students gazed expectantly for an explanation.

"I, uh, I-"Lilli didn't want to say that Berwald had frightened her into fainting, it seemed so tactless as he sat politely across from her.

"Did Berwald the-Berwald scare you? I did the same thing, 'cept without all the fainting business." Michelle piped up. Lilli nodded gratefully.

"Well, he's like, actually really nice! You should meet Miss Tina, um, yeah, she's one of the nicest people you'll meet! They look like total opposites, and like they totally shouldn't be together, but they are!" Michelle blabbed. Lilli shifted uncomfortably in her seat, stealing a glance at the butler. He looked nonplussed at all his personal life being revealed, so much so that Lilli wondered if he was perhaps hard of hearing.

"Heh, er, Berwald! Is your family coming for the holiday?" Eli was clearly grasping at straws at this point, the tension thickening that Lilli hoped it would become visible. What would tension even look like?

Oh yeah, the holiday. Her first Christmas away from home. Spending it with an 8-foot butler and a psychotic knife-carrying maid. Joy.

"Tina s'nt a letter th' other day. She's com'n' down, bu' Peter n' Ax'l are goin'a stay home." Berwald grunted. He had a funny way of speaking, his voice lifting at the wrong points of his sentence, and his dropped vowels made him sound uncouth. Perhaps he had not come from as fortunate a family as Lilli's.

"Noah? Michelle? Lucille?" Eli practically begged for a response.

"My, sister, she's going to come, certainly, but my brother, he might, not be." Noah swallowed.

"Mm, Papa and Maman will come, and whatever kids they have will too." Michelle giggled, sharing a knowing glance with Lucille.  
"Kiváló! Nat, get me a notepad, please. So, that'll be, Tina, Arthur, Marianne, uh, Alfred, Matt, -is Bruce still there? No, no he's not- Bella, and uh, maybe Lars." Eli jotted the names down on a notepad. Lucille made no mention of her family, and Lilli made a mental note to ask Natalya later whether Lucille was an orphan like herself.

Her chance came around one o'clock in the morning.

 **Quick question- I'm not sure if I should make this fic BelaLiech. It wasn't originally set to have any romantic plot at all, but my yuri-loving side wants me to make lesbians. Shit.**

 **Translations:**

 **Papa- Father (like y'all needed that translation)**

 **Maman- Mother (again, kinda unnecessary)**

 **Kivalo- Excellent (it's Hungarian)**

 **New Characters:**

 **Tina- Nyo! Finland (yes, Sweden is The Gayest, but Tina is actually real Finland crossdressing because whatever godforsaken time period this is set in is most likely before gay rights)**

 **Peter- Sealand**

 **Axel- Ladonia (he's Su-san's kid from a previous arranged marriage)**

 **Lars- Netherlands**

 **Bella- Belgium**

 **Marianne- Nyo France**

 **I thinkkkk that's everything so if I forgot one please just comment!**

 **((Also, comment any spelling/grammar mistakes please, I did not have time to proofread TnT))**

 **~Greenayy**


	6. Eike

**Hello world,**

 **I guess I want to say that if y'all want, my tumblr is greenayy**

 **~Greenayy**

Natalya was standing over Lilli when she awoke, hands braced against her mattress on either side of Lilli's shoulders. Nat's knees rubbed against Lilli's hips. Her eyes glimmered silver in the moonlight, and her mouth was curved into a brutal grin. Nat's lips didn't move from their blood-curdling position as she whispered to Lilli.

"I talked to Berwald. He knows not key. He says, he is not going to the attic. He has no interest in losing his job."

"Thass great, Naat, whud'r you doin' here? What, time, is it?" Great. Now Lilli sounded as uncultured as Berwald.

"One. Get up, and make yourself useful for a change." Nat's expression hardened, her glare solidifying Lilli's veins.

As Lilli went through the procedure of rediscovering her missing hair, a routine occurrence for the next week she would later find out, Nat busied herself comparing the key to a sheet of paper. Lilli limped over.

"What's that? Another key?" Lilli questioned. Nat beckoned her even closer.

"I took some soap last night. I put it in the top lock, and when I took it out this morning, it was hardened into the shape of a key."

"So, why didn't you just unlock the door and be done with it?" Lilli begged. Nat was not stupid,

"The soap would break. It is not clay, dummy, or, perhaps you will understand me better this way: _dummkopf._ " Lilli had been called names before, but being called an idiot in her own language made her face flush and her blood boil. Especially from Nat, somebody Lilli considered her friend.

"How was I supposed to know? If it kept its shape when you took it out, shouldn't it have turned just fine? AND I"LL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT I RECEIVED TOP HONOURS FROM DIE AKADEMIE FüR GUT AUSGEBILDETE MäDCHEN!" Lilli roared.

Nat opened her mouth to retort, but was cut off by banging on Lilli's door. They looked at each other fearfully. Nat dove under the bed and Lilli raced to the wardrobe. Lilli could see through a gap were the bottom of the doors (she was curled up beneath her dresses) that the door was open now. A foot tapped, and then somebody walked past the wardrobe. Red dripped behind them. The footsteps stopped right in front of her, and their owner bent down. Lilli was now met with a young girl, almost identical to her, with long grey hair and bloodshot violet eyes. She smiled.

"Your breathing is too loud. Your voice is too loud. Your feets is too loud. I could tell where you hids if I was across the house." The girl giggled. She opened the doors all the way and held out a hand for Lilli to take. "My name is Eike. Meser Ed's letting me stay in his house for a bit. Wud'r you doing here?"

"M-my name's Lilli. My older brother, he's in an asylum." The girl shook herself.

"Uh, I'm apposeda be in one of those right now. 'Cept Meser Ed showed up and vouched for me. So now, I just gotta stay up in my room so th' other kids are okie-dokie."

Eike talked like a small child, but was parallel with Lilli in every way, from the skinny wrists to the long nose to the small shoulders to the gentle slope of their waists and to their flat chests. The crimson dripping from her white-blonde hair was too bright and thick to be blood.

"Why do you have to stay in your own room?" Lilli asked.

"Oh, yeah, I'm in the black door! I get lonely a lot, d'ya wanna visit sometime?" Eike pleaded, skipping around the question. Lilli was too tired to say 'no' and agreed to visit Eike the next morning. Eike retreated, and Nat rolled out from under the bed.

"Does Roderich take in orphans often?" Lilli jumped into Nat's open arms.

Nat embraced her stiffly. "No, just you."

"Isn't she-"Lilli gestured to the door-"an orphan?"

"You mean Eike? Nah, _he_ 's just crazy." Lilli stared at Nat quizzically. Everything about Eike, said 'female'. Eike was even wearing a red skirt.

"What about Lucille?"  
"No, she's not an orphan at all!"

"Why isn't her family coming?" Lilli wondered.

"No, they're coming. She and Michelle are sisters."

Lilli pushed Nat away. Michelle, with her chocolate skin and ebony hair, looked nothing like pale, fragile, porcelain Lucille. "Michelle's got a different _Vati_." Lilli hated it when Natalya spoke German. German reminded her of her childhood with Vash, something sacred to her, and Natalya's broken, strangled German made her feel as though Nat was prying into her mind and purloining her memories.

"What was Eike's deal anyway? I've been here longer than he has, and I've never seen him come out of his room for anything..."

"His deal? Eike is my friend, stop insulting him!" Lilli stomped her foot. Eike would help them get into the attic whether Nat accepted it or not, so Nat had better keep her judgments to herself.

 **oOo**

Lilli woke at dawn the next morning and tried the doorknob across the hall. It was unlocked and opened early. Eike was waiting for her, sitting cross-legged on his bed.

"Hello," he noted monotonously. He curved his long fingers along the side of a broken bumblebee-colored chair, pushing it violently towards Lilli. She gently lowered herself onto the seat, feeling as though the rotted wood would snap under her weight, but it held firm.

"I have been disappointed in the past. I had assumed that you would act similar to the fashion of your predecessors; promise me, never appear, and suffer consequences consequently. I was hoping to show you my painting."

Eike led Lilli alongside a wall, entirely made of Venetian glass. At the end, an easel covered with alabaster linen stood proudly amidst a battlefield coated with shrapnel made of wood and glass. His bare feet tread effortlessly through a thin path despite Lilli leaning so heavily on him he may as well have been carrying her. He displayed none of the erratic, energized behavior from earlier that morning, but walked sluggishly, as though he was walking through glue. Lilli reached out towards the canvas, preparing herself for whatever horrendous visions Eike had translated to paint. Eike screamed.

"NO! Do not-don't touch that. That's not done yet." Eike turned away and covered his face with both hands. Lilli could hear him muttering in rapid-fire German under his breath, catching only disjointed phrases. Finally, Eike caught his breath and turned back towards Lilli.

"Look up. That's where I put my paintings." Lilli hesitated. There would be no going back after she turned her head. God knew what Eike had painted- murder victims, festering wounds, whatever demons lurked in the infinite depths of his mind. Her neck disobeyed her commands, jerkily rotating towards the ceiling. Eike started to tremble beside her with anticipation, his teeth digging so deeply into his lip that beads of blood dribbled down his chin.

Then he snapped towards Lilli, grabbing for her throat. He pushed her chin up and she caught only a glimpse of what mysteries his peculiar canvas held before her vision faded.

 **oOo**

Lilli woke up where she had dropped to the floor. Above her, she could see Eike's pièce de résistance- a painting of an unfamiliar man with curly brown hair, a gentle smile, and a lightening beard. Eike was soundly asleep beside the door.

The room swooped in dizzying loop-the-loops as Lilli rose to her feet. She saw blue footprints leading towards the door. Lilli traced the path hurriedly, certain it hadn't been there before, and found her feet miraculously crystal-free. Eike had left her a nice passageway, she supposed, but that didn't change the fact that Eike was crazy as they come. Much more so than Vash had been. It truly wasn't fair that Vash had to be locked away, unreachable, while this mad-thing- was roaming free around the largest estate in Austria.

Eike had hung a shred of Chinese silk on a splinter of the damaged door. There were sketches on it made with a black dust that settled in the crevices of her hands when she picked it up. They depicted two figures, clearly her and Eike, holding hands in front of a quivery easel. Damp lines ran down the cloth, separating the clearly marked **FRIENDS**.

Lilli couldn't stay in this room anymore. It held years of sadness, of Eike's constant struggle to retain whatever shred of humanity he had left, the disintegrating walls pressing in on him, the cage he was doomed to spend his plagued life in.

Nat was waiting for her outside. She drew Lilli close and whispered to her, in a soft voice clashing with her blade-like arms that she should not have went alone, and had Eike done anything to her, and was she alright, and did she want to clean up before going downstairs because company was over, and geez Lilli Elisabeth was like a hawk she thought I stabbed you, and I won't cover for you next time.

Lilli just nodded and buried her face deeper into the nape of Natalya's neck.

 **Eike- Kugelmugel**

 **((I don't know a whole lot about his character, so if anyone would like to give me tips about Kugelmugel in the comments it would be greatly appreciated!))**

 **~Greenayy**


	7. Company's Coming

Lilli hummed quietly to herself as she tied a mauve ribbon in her hair. She had originally held her braids back with one, but now the hair falling in her face was restricted to only a lock on either side of her physiognomy. Her shoulders drooped under the weight of the thick boysenberry-coloured velvet of her dress. The cinched waist was slightly too tight and left her feeling out of breath, and the tall, stiff, lace collar tickled her jaw, but Lilli wanted to make a good impression and she looked her best in the dress- plus, this style, with the pouffed shoulders, was what all the debutantes were wearing.

Lilli ran a water-soaked brush through her untamable sandy blonde hair. It refused to lay flat and glossy, as it had pre-haircut, but stubbornly hung shaggy and uneven. She had found a clump of dried, crusty chartreuse paint behind her ear, and it had taken her fifteen minutes to clean out.

Natalya opened her door the same time Lilli grasped the doorknob.

"You're ready? The downstairs people are waiting for you."

Lilli nodded and twirled beneath Nat's arm. Her dress may have been dense, but it swirled beautifully around her pearly petticoat. Lilli practically glided downstairs, and was almost immediately brought out of her lively reverie.

 **oOo**

"I'm sooo sorry! Um- I- uh- here." The boy settled for offering Lilli a hand up. He had cobalt blue eyes, hair so blonde it was practically white, and a boyish smile that made Lilli's knees quake. He was wearing a black-and-dark-grey striped shirt underneath a garnet vest. He lifted Lilli up, almost toppling over backwards himself. Lilli's stomach flip-flopped. "Uhm, so, do you want to- to go- go meet everyone else? You must be Lilli- I'm Emil." And quieter, he added "Jeez, Emil, stop rambling."

Lilli nodded. She didn't trust her recently disobedient tongue to add anything positive to the discussion.

Emil walked back in the direction he had been coming from, still holding Lilli's hand. His hands were like fresh snow, soft and smooth and pale and cold. Long delicate fingers like Roderich's. They wrapped all the way around Lilli's slender wrist. Hesitantly, he pushed open the heavy oak door.

"Look what the cat dragged in," a gravelly 40-packs-a-day voice drawled. The speaker, a dirty blonde with spiked hair like a pineapple and a red, white, and blue-striped scarf, was smoking an ornate pipe. A tiny tomato, of all things, decorated the pipe near the end, and gothic designs creeping up towards his mouth. Emil flushed.

"This is Lilli, and you would be better off to treat her with respect, _Lars_." Emil made Lars' name sound like a curse word, rolling the R and hissing the S. Lars did a double take.

"She's Zwingli's little sister? Heh, she looks more like Ei- uh- Gilbert than anyone." Lars fiddled with the buttons on his coat as a girl with a shiny, kitty-like grin and bouncy blonde hair twirled into the drawing room.

"Lilli! You're finally up! I'm Bella, I'm Noah's sister, but you probably haven't heard about me, he doesn't talk much," Bella gushed. She slid over to Lilli and started pumping her hand up and down enthusiastically. Lilli was confused. Noah talked almost as much as Michelle did.

Bella dragged Lilli through the door. They headed out through the courtyard, towards the massive guesthouse. Inside, the fervent chatter stopped as Lilli entered. A woman with butterscotch hair pulled into an elegant bun by crown-shaped pins greeted her.

"Are you Lilli? I'm Marianne; I'm Lucille and Michelle's mother." She smelled like roses, chocolate, and raspberry perfume. It was intoxicatingly pleasant, and Lilli found herself gravitating towards Marianne. Marianne gently hugged her, the silk of her sangria evening gown softly rubbing against Lilli's cheeks. Standing beside Marianne was a man with eyebrows the size of Eike's braids and shamrock eyes. He smiled stiffly before resuming a conversation with Roderich about the state of the economy or the weather or kids these days.

Beside him was a blonde teen with a prominent cowlick. He was chatting loudly with Noah, the latter looking as though he wanted to slip through the floor. The teen looked over in her direction. Sensing new prey, he walked over amiably.

"Hey, I'm Alfred." He had an obnoxious, nasal accent. Lilli guessed him American- or, what was that other country called? Kanata? Lilli did a head count. There was her, Roderich, Eli, Marianne, Arthur, Alfred, Noah, Emil, Bella, and Lucille. So why was there eleven bodies? She found herself face-to-face with a strawberry-blonde boy wearing a fur-lined, beige coat. He was holding a white, sweet-faced dog. Just as suddenly as he had appeared, he vanished into thin air.

"Matthew?" Marianne called. Lilli could see a faint outline of the boy's coat as he reappeared behind Arthur. She focused on him, tuning out Alfred's incessant chatter. As though emerging from a mist, the boy revealed himself. He was about the same height as Alfred, and looked similar enough that they might be brothers. He had large red glasses and a long curl in the front of his wavy hair. Matthew gave her a small wave before receding into the shadows.

The doors parted. Through them stepped Berwald.

"Anyone need m' t' take th'r bags?"

The crowd started gratefully handing off their heavy luggage to the butler. Berwald left via the opposite door, one Lilli supposed led to the bedrooms. Alfred followed, asking Berwald about this and that and them and there.

"So, how's life? Does this job have a good retirement plan? What are the medical benefits? Do you have insurance? Would you get blamed if the house burned down? Do you have kids? Are they coming? Where are you from, like Denmark or Copenhagen or some other country or whatever? Dude, answer me!"

"'m from Swed'n."

 **oOo**

 _Bong! Bong! Bong! Bong! Bong! Bong! Bong! Bong! Bong! Bong!_

The chatter continued well into the night, only disrupted when the chimes of the massive grandfather clock served as a rude awakening that the party did in fact need to sleep. The party disbanded, and Lilli felt somebody grab her collar and drag her out of the guesthouse.

"Hi, Nat. Are we going to visit Eike?"

'Why in the world do you want to see _him?_ Do you not remember what happened last time?

Nat quickened her pace. Lilli saw somebody tall and broad standing behind a tree. He moved alongside the cobblestone path, following them.

"Nat, there's someone following us."

"Don't make eye contact and he won't get you."

Lilli squeezed her eyes shut. She heard his footsteps now, echoing Natalya's a half-second later. Natalya broke into a run and lifted Lilli onto her back. Lilli screamed.

"RUN! RUN! RUN!"

"What the hell do you think I'm doing?"

She could hear his quick pants behind them. Natalya jumped through an open window beside the door to the garden shed.

"Shut…. Window…." Nat moaned. She slumped against the wall. Lilli closed the window. The doorknob jiggled.

"сестра, don't you want to see brother? Is me, Ee-vahn." The voice was high and childlike, full of happiness. Lilli wondered why Nat didn't open the door. She had said she and her brother were close, and 'Ee-vahn' sounded pleasant. Lilli reached for the doorknob. Nat reached for her hand. The door opened regardless.

"Hello, сестра. You are new here? Ah, you look very much like Zwingli. I have heard about your brother. 'Tis a shame." Ee-vahn pulled Lilli into a hug. Though he had looked soft beneath his burlap coat, Lilli felt her nose bend against stiff muscle. He set her down and turned his attention to Natalya. He said something in rapid Russian. Natalya bit her lip.

"нет, brother." His childish smile drooped. He crooned something in a quivery voice. "I said, no. I am not leaving here!" Natalya snapped. She switched to Russian. Ee-vahn slammed her against the wall. "Lilli, leave. This does not concern you," Natalya commanded. Her brother pushed her further into the wall, and Lilli would not have been surprised if there were a Natalya-shaped indent. "Yes, go. You are just small, you do not need be here." Ee-vahn waved her away. The red haze clouded at the edge of Lilli's vision again. She crept toward the heavy metal shovel propped against the rotting table. It was crusted with fresh earth, and Ee-vahn's blood after she brought it down hard on the back of his skull. He dropped to his knees, dragging Natalya down with him. "You-you deceive. You swing hard, I tell you," he moaned, before lurching to the side and passing out. Natalya wriggled out of his grasp. "Come, Lilli. Let's go to the main house. It has been a long night." Though her face remained placid, Lilli saw a glint of- fear? Admiration? God knew what it was. Natalya's eyes were the color of ripe blueberries. They were large, and Lilli found herself lost in them as she half-walked to the back door. They were flat, and held no depth; yet Lilli could not shake the feeling that looking into them was like looking into a void, drawing her closer, until Lilli rammed into the brick wall with a resounding _smack._ Natalya winced. "Are you alright." "Y-yes, I am fine. Thank you." Natalya walked with Lilli until the staircase, where they said their goodnights. "Do not go looking for Eike tomorrow until I am with you," Natalya said. Lilli nodded apprehensively. Natalya had not been wrong yet. **Hello World! Sorry for not updating in so long...**


	8. The Caravan, pt 1

**Hello world!**

 **Oh geez, this chapter is so long TnT**

 **~Greenayy**

Lilli woke up the next morning under far more blankets then she remembered putting on the last night. She felt woozy and light, pinned to the Earth beneath the suffocating quilts. She had been dressed in a nightgown, most likely by Natalya. Her shaggy hair tickled her shoulders, scratching like a woolen sweater. Lilli sat up slowly. A brown haze clouded her vision as blood dropped to her stomach. The first thing she noticed was that she was not alone. Nat hovered at the foot of her bed, hair tied back into a ponytail by a fat spider-black ribbon. She was wearing a grey smock, tucked in slightly at her waist. It had half-length sleeves that drooped from her bony arms. Natalya looked like a banshee, her gaunt scowl chilling Lilli's insides. Lilli slipped out of bed. Her feet were unsteady on the plush carpet and she struggled to stay upright. Lilli supposed that she looked like a drunkard. Natalya held out a pair of high-waist trousers. "What am I supposed to do with these?" Lilli wondered. Natalya gaped. "You wear them. What else do you think?" Natalya scoffed. "Well- well, I can't. Those are boys' clothes." Lilli folded her arms across her chest. She noticed that Natalya was wearing pants beneath her smock. Perhaps- "Would you rather wear these or show your underpants to the whole estate?" Natalya demanded. Lilli winced inwardly. She tugged them on awkwardly. Admittedly, they were comfortable, and Lilli would find it difficult to go back to a flimsy dress when she went back with her brother. If he found out she was wearing pants, he would throw a small fit- at least Lilli assumed. She had never even asked for a short-sleeved dress, let alone boys' clothing. Natalya gave Lilli something else too- an odd sort of shirt, one without any sorts of buttons on it. "Where is my dress?" Lilli questioned. Natalya laughed. "You are going full boy, child. Now dress." Lilli couldn't fathom the shirt- it was soft, yes, white cotton, and fit her well, but it was plain, with no pockets or embroidery anywhere. "It's called a tee shirt, Lil. Al brought them." Lilli frowned. Natalya was treating her like a child, but really Nat was not much more than a child herself. Lilli was fourteen, and Natalya was nineteen, an age difference to be sure but nothing for Natalya to feel high and mighty about. Lilli wondered how old Emil was, or even why he was here at all. He had cute boyish features but walked and talked like an old man. As soon as she was dressed, Natalya dragged her downstairs. The party stood idly around the stairwell. All the people, girls and boys alike, were dressed like Lilli. Only Natalya wore a dress. A chocolate hand spun Lilli around. "Lilli! The caravan is coming!" Michelle squealed. Lilli wondered what in the world a caravan was. Lucille twirled over to them. "You weren't here last year, the caravan always shows up at the holiday." Lucille said vaguely. Noah walked over to them slowly. Lilli noticed how he seemed withdrawn and sad, almost, since the crowd appeared. Perhaps he just didn't like so many unfamiliar people- her brother had been the same way. "Yes, brudder and schwëster have given me some money to spend." So a caravan was a place to buy things. Vash would not approve; he had hated to spend money so frivolously. Or perhaps the caravan sold only practical items; why else would they be so excited? Fancy trinkets were a waste of money. They broke so easily, costed so much, and brought only false happiness. The only way one could truly be happy was if they were safe, with lots of money, cheese, and guns to sustain themselves and cards to entertain oneself. "Children!" Oh, how Lilli hated being so derogatorily referred to. She was no child; she had proven this to Ivan just last night. "We're leaving soon~!" Elisabeth called airily. The students rushed to join the line of people, taking Lilli with them. Elisabeth separated them into groups- apparently, they had to take a carriage to the caravan? Lilli wasn't sure, but she hoped to be sent with Emil; she had yet to see him today, and she admitted to herself that maybe she liked him just because of his big, shiny cobalt eyes, or his swishy cloud-coloured hair, or- yes, she barely knew him, but she was drawn to him in much the same way she was drawn to Natalya. Oh. She liked him, didn't she? And Natalya- girls weren't supposed to like girls in such a way! Lilli wished she could rip her traitorous heart out and stomp it through to the depths of Hell where it belonged. Before she could tell what was happening, Lilli was yanked roughly out the door of the manor onto a gold-trimmed carriage. She rubbed her arm, annoyed. No one had ever dared handle her in such a way, except for Nat- oh- it was Nat, and Nat was waving goodbye to her, and now Lilli looked like a right jerk, sitting there mad at the very reason she hadn't missed the whole caravan. Lilli turned to look at her companions; she was with Roderich, Berwald, Elisabeth, and (yes!) Emil. Emil was directly across from her, looking out the window. He was next to Roderich, who had his elegant hand draped across Emil's shoulders. An odd position, to be frank- but Elisabeth had her arm the same way around Lilli. Perhaps there was a reason; Lilli found out why as soon as Berwald turned from the smoothed-out lane leading to the town to a rocky trail through a forest. Even with Elisabeth's arm holding her to the seat, Lilli's tailbone felt shattered by the end of the trip. Roderich looked as though he would rather be underneath Emil's arm. Emil waved shyly. "Gott- good morning, Lilli." "Good morning!" _Don't sound so peppy!_ Lilli scolded herself mentally. Emil brightened at the sound of her words, life sparking for a moment in his sad eyes. Lilli decided that he was an orphan, like her, taken from a precious older sister- Lovise, Lilli decided- and placed with his uncle Berwald and aunt- Tiina, was it? Much the same as her. Yes, that seemed right; but without braids to cut off, he resorted to his arms. The same way her brother did. That would explain the angry, jagged lines decorating his forearms, creeping up like strange, scarlet gloves. Just as Lilli thought of a way to start a conversation- she would ask him if he played any instruments- the carriage jolted to a stop and Lilli was jostled out. Now, she understood what a caravan was. It was a series of boxy carriages, decorated with intricate oriental pictures. Huge windows displayed the wares inside, and an aura of mystery and awe settled over the clearing. A family of Asians bounced around outside, chatting up the families and pointing at the vivid carriages enthusiastically- they likely owned the caravan. Lilli remembered where she had seen something like this before- a band of gypsies had once tried to camp on her land. Vash had chased them away with shotgun in hand. He had come back muttering viciously under his breath. Lilli could only imagine the insults. Emil was standing close to Lilli; an idea crossed her mind. She tugged on his sleeve. "Would you like to walk around with me?" Gott, what came over her? She had been so much more courageous since she came to stay with Mr. Edelstein; perhaps her brother had been holding her back. What a thought. Emil nodded. He smiled slightly. "That sounds nice." He allowed Lilli to lead him to the first 'van she wanted to visit. Ooh, slang. It felt wonderful not to have to think in full phrases all the time. The pair stood in front of a taffy-pink 'van with lilies painted on the sides. They were wonderfully detailed, and looked new compared to the cracking, knotty wood the 'van was made of. Emil elbowed her. "Look, you're on this one," he smiled. "Hah, shut up-"Lilli cut herself off. Shut up? What was happening right now? She was acting so oddly- but yet she felt happier than she had in a long time. Emil turned his attention to the girl running it. She was Asian, with long black hair that fell short in the front, framing her delicate features. She looked like a porcelain doll, her amber eyes sparkling like sun on glass. She was smiling brightly, wearing a bubblegum-pink- what were they called? Oh, Lilli couldn't remember. Emil cleared his throat. "Uhm, what are you selling?" he asked quietly. "Oh, these are traditional Taiwanese clothing! You like to buy?" Emil pointed to a rose-colored dress. "For the lady," he said, shooting the girl a wink. Lilli stared. He had been so awkward yesterday- but now, apparently he was a real charmer. The girl giggled airily. "My name's Mei, by the way." "Emil." Mei passed the dress through to Lilli. "It goes over top of your clothing, sweetheart." Why did everyone talk to Lilli as though she was a child? It was so frustrating. The dress fit Lilli perfectly, which was annoying. **oOo** Emil dragged Lilli over to the stall he had been eyeing. It was much older, the paint beginning to peel from years of wear and tear. Inside was a calm Asian boy, a stark contrast to the lively action of his family outside. Firecrackers, signs and posters advertising their bright explosions, surrounded him. He had thick eyebrows, perhaps half the size of Mr. Kirkland's-who, strangely, had not come- and choppy dark-brown hair. He reminded Lilli of Natalya slightly- if more polite and less attractive. Emil took out a few notes from his wallet. "How much are they?" Emil asked awkwardly, his suaveness from before vanished as suddenly as it had come. The Chinese boy frowned. "Are you nineteen? You have to be nineteen to buy fireworks in this country." "How old are you?" "Sixteen." "Yet you can sell them?" "Touché," the boy smirks. He gestured to a packet of bright red-and-yellow-striped firecrackers. "These are just different colour fireworks." Emil smirked back, sliding the notes across the counter. "I'll take as many as this buys." Eyebrows counted the money a bit before sliding back ten crackers. "Use them wisely," he muttered sarcastically. Emil thanked him and stepped away, dragging Lilli to the next caravan in line. His mouth knitted into a straight line, and his eyelids slid shut. His cheeks turned rose red. He leaned against the side of the 'van for a moment before standing up again, his face returned to a blank slate- like the smooth face of an iceberg. "I apologize. I, uh, am not-"Lilli pressed a finger to his lips. "It's okay." So he swung that way, huh? Perhaps that was for the best- that would make it easier to distract herself from the button nose and glimmering eyes and- yes, Lilli didn't stand a chance. The duo stepped around to the side of the caravan. Inside, a bespectacled man eyed them curiously. "You wish to play a game?" he inquired. "One dollar." Emil nodded, placing two dollars on the counter. "One try for each of us." "Very well. Who wishes for first attempt?" the man- _Cheng_ , a nametag on his coat read- asked. Emil nudged Lilli forward. "Uh- I do," Lilli gasped. Cheng placed a bead on the table and three shells. He smirked. "The bead goes under one shell. Follow it with your eyes, and if you guess correctly where the bead has ended up, you will win five dollars, plus yours back. If you lose, I keep your money and you have the option to try again." That sounded like child's play! In fact, Lilli recollected playing a similar game with her brother. Cheng started to shuffle the shells. They were a pretty gradient, the small mauve tip widening into a pearlesque fan. The shells moved so slowly Lilli thought she would have braids again before they were shuffled, but Cheng started to pick up the speed. Eventually, the shells were moving so quickly that Lilli's eyes started to blur; when Cheng stopped, Lilli could only make a wild guess as to where the bead ended up. "That one," Lilli said, pointing at the rightmost shell. Cheng lifted it to reveal the oak table. He lifted the middle one next. Nothing. The left shell. Nada. The bead had- disappeared. Lilli frowned. "How crooked! I couldn't have won any way I guessed!" Cheng only laughed. He reached through the window and lifted Lilli's fist onto the table, curled fingers facing up. "Open your hand." Cheng commanded. Lilli unfurled her digits. There, in her palm, lay the candy-red bead. "Oh, I have to know how this works!" Emil gasped. He pushed past Lilli, hands clasping onto the edge of the table excitedly. Cheng placed the bead underneath the shells again, shuffling just as fast as he had with Lilli, who tried (and failed) to guess where the bead would end up. Cheng had told Emil to open his mouth when he incorrectly guessed the left shell- and the bead rolled off his tongue and landed on the table. Lilli noticed how it was dry- something you would not expect for the place it had just been! Lilli could not remember an opportunity where Cheng could have slipped the bead into Emil's mouth- and mouth, of all places! **I needed to cut the story off here so it didn't get even longer- I try to keep my chapters ~1000 words long, and this one is 2000 and it's not even over!** **~Greenayy**


	9. The Caravan, pt 2

**Hello everybody,**

 **I'm sorry about the long wait for this chapter, but I haven't had much time to write lately.**

Emil's hands slipped from the edge of the counter. The tips of his ears turned crimson. He glanced over at Lilli, a small smile on his face. "He's good at this!" Emil admitted. Lilli giggled and let Emil lead her away from the stand. Cheng smiled warmly at the duo's receding backs. **oOo** "EVERYBODY!" Elisabeth called. She clapped her hands above her head loudly, drawing the attention of the students, family, and other visitors alike. Lilli and Emil dashed to the centre of the meadow the caravan was perched in; there was a light dusting of snow beneath a mat of long, brown-at-the-tips grass that crunched beneath their feet, too many layers between to chill their toes. "Listen up! I and Roderich are going to Vienna after this- we need to pick up some friends of ours- but the rest of you are to head back to Edelstein manor." Elisabeth went on a bit afterwards, but Lilli heard none of it. She turned to Emil. "Hey, will we-"Emil was gone. Lilli stood on her tiptoes and cursed her stature- no one in her family cracked 5'6, Vash included, and Lilli herself stood at merely 5'2. She could still grow, perhaps, but for now even Michelle towered over her. Lilli weaved through the small crowd. There was a clear (albeit windy) path leading to the right, and Lilli followed it faithfully. It lead to the fireworks stand, and Lilli felt her heart drop to the floor. Leon wasn't at his usual post- the window was slightly ajar, like it had been slammed shut and bounced open again. The door on the side was swinging halfheartedly, and Lilli could hear hushed voices behind it. Lilli's feet carried her over without her consent, and she peeked cautiously behind the door. Leon was pushed up against the side of the 'van, Emil's hands planted firmly on either side of his shoulders as their mouths met. Emil pulled back. Lilli craned her head forward to catch what he was saying. "I wish you could come with me." "Maybe I could. I've always wanted to visit Denmark." Leon winked. Emil laughed, ducking his head into the nape of Leon's neck. He whispered something too quiet for Lilli to hear- but if the blush on Leon's profile said anything, it wasn't meant for her to hear. Lilli ducked back before anyone could see her. She slammed a hand over her throbbing heart. Shakily, she returned to the group just in time for Elisabeth to pull her roughly by the arm into the carriage. "Where have you been? We've been looking everywhere! Where's Emil, wait, never mind, if you knew, you'd be with him- I have Roderich looking for Emil anyway." Elisabeth sat primly on the seat beside Lilli, who gazed out the window. In a matter of minutes, a flash of plum caught her eye, and a furiously blushing Roderich appeared dragging Emil in much the same way Lilli had been handled. Emil met eyes with Lilli after sitting down cautiously on the plush velvet seat. His lips were bruised, his skin blotchy. He was panting slightly, and his shirt was hanging off one shoulder. He adjusted it self-consciously, and Lilli looked away awkwardly. She knew what he had been doing, and any kind of conversation was beyond her. Elisabeth frowned overtop of Lilli's head; she could feel the rage simmering beneath the pretty white edelweiss tucked into Eli's wavy hazel-brown locks. Suddenly, they were off again. Lilli's tailbone, still sore from the trip up, screamed in protest, and Lilli winced visibly every time they drove over a pothole (admittedly becoming less frequent as they drove closer to Vienna.) "We're here!" Elisabeth smiled. She pushed Lilli out the door into the lean, muscled back of a tall blonde. His head snapped to the side with militaristic precision. "Lilli?" he asked quietly. How did everyone know her name? Well, two could play at that game. She'd guess his. He sounded German, so most likely he was a- "Ludwig?" she asked innocently. She'd often been told she was adorable, and elderly relatives seemed to especially enjoy treating her as though she was still nine. Why didn't she end up with Aunt Marlene, anyway? "So you've heard about me? Surprised Roderich talked about anyone but himself for ten seconds…" he muttered under his breath. Lilli studied him more carefully- perhaps he was sixteen? Maybe seventeen. He was holding the hand of a stunning tan girl who had long auburn hair pulled back into a bun, a braid wrapped around it. Stray curls framed her soft, heart-shaped face. Lilli felt her heartbeat quicken. "Ludwig! It's been so long! Last time I saw you, you and Phyllis-" "-Felicia-" "-were the same height!" Elisabeth gushed. She pulled them both into a painful-looking hug. "Oh, Lilli, have you met Gilbert? Here, why don't you talk to him?" Eli spun Lilli around like a top. She smacked into a deathly pale, white-haired man who bore no resemblance to her. Lilli remembered Lars' comment. What did he mean, "More like Gilbert than anyone"? She did look a lot like Vash- much more so than whoever this freak was. "Yeah, yeah, whatever, can we just get back to the godda-"Phyllis/Felicia smacked her hand over the speaker's mouth. They looked strikingly similar- though the shorter woman's hair was darker, her eyes greener, and her plump lips seemingly permanently creased into a frown. "There are _children_ here, Chiara," Phy-licia whispered harshly. "So what?" "So you need to watch that filthy mouth of yours~!" "Shut up, you cu-"Phy-licia pushed Chiara to the side. "Aww, you must be Lilli? I'm Felicia. I'm Ludwig's fiancée. This is Chiara, my au pair." Felicia smiled. She held out a gloved hand. Lilli took it cautiously. "Yeah, yeah, whatever, howsabout we go to the fu-ow!-manor?" grumbled Chiara. Roderich's head snapped over from his conversation with Ludwig. "Aw, Chiara, don't be so ru-ude~,"Felicia sang, waltzing towards a boxy black carriage. Her hand looped around Chiara's wrist, tugging her along. "Hey, Lilli! My name's Gilbert. I met you once before, but you probably don't remember. Lilli spun around. She'd almost forgotten about Gilbert. His white hair clashed with his twentysomething physique. "No, not really." Lilli mumbled. "Kesesese, figures. You were like, two." Gilbert cackled. He slapped Lilli across her back. "So lemme see your ring, Lizzie!" he called suddenly. He trotted over to Elisabeth, leaving Lilli wondering just who these people were. Deerstalker time again, she supposed. **Felicia- Nyo Italy** **Chiara- Nyo Romano** **Ludwig- Germany** **Gilbert- Prussia** **I don't really think they were necessary but oh well.**


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